A suspended medical doctor avoided jail time for crimes related to selling presigned medical marijuana certificates to supposed patients through a co-defendant at a Warren store.

Lois Butler-Jackson, 52, received 18 months probation from Judge Diane Druzinski on Tuesday in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens following her January jury conviction of health care fraud and committing a legal or illegal act in an illegal manner. Both charges are punishable by up to five years in prison.

Jackson told the judge and said afterward that she remains confused about the allegations and maintains her innocence.

"It's not only a shock, I still don't understand the nuance of it," she said.

The punishment is within the sentencing guideline range of probation up to nine months in jail. Butler-Jackson has no prior record.

Butler-Jackson, who practiced in Clinton Township, in 2010 approved hundreds of medical marijuana certificates that were sold to people to obtain a patient card under the Medical Marijuana Act, prosecutors said. Butler-Jackson failed to follow the law that required her to establish a doctor-patient relationship and obtain a patient history, authorities said.

Butler-Jackson made $20,000 to $30,000 by selling the signed certificates for $100 to the accused middleman, Brian Deloose, who allegedly resold them for $250 at his "Safe Access Clinic" at his Warren appliance store, prosecutors said. Officials alleged more than 300 were sold.

Jackson denied wrongdoing, saying she looked at the medical records of patients and was told by an attorney her actions were legal.

"The problem is with the law itself. There was no definition of patient-doctor relationship at the time."

But Druzinski told Butler-Jackson: "It was pretty clear to me what happened. ... Twelve people thought you were guilty."

Butler-Jackson said she believes law enforcement officials, including state Attorney General Bill Schuette, "made it more sensational than it was."

Her comments were "troubling" to assistant Macomb prosecutor William Dailey, who prosecuted the case with First Assistant Attorney General William Rollstin.

"It's a little bit disingenuous," he said. "The idea (under the MMA) was for physicians to be somewhat of gatekeepers ... and she abused that trust. She and certain people took advantage of the medical marijuana law."

"She falsified charts ... it's pretty disturbing," Rollstin added.

Butler-Jackson said she was hamstrung in her defense and hopes to learn more from the appeal.

"Not everything was brought out in the trial," she said.

Butler-Jackson, a Detroit resident, was a home-care physician for Sentinel Wound Care Associates in Clinton Township. Her license to practice medicine, granted in 1988, was suspended for six months and one day but she has not sought to renew it, she said.

The MMA, which was passed by voters in 2008, has been tested in many court cases over the past four years.

Deloose, 36, of Eastpointe, is charged with three counts of delivery or manufacture of marijuana and one count each of intentionally placing false information on a chart and conspiracy to commit a legal act or offense in an illegal manner. He faces a March 25 pretrial and April 9 trial in front of Druzinski.